Ismailism
Ismailism, known historically and among practitioners as Batiniyya, is a branch of Shia Islam. Like all Shia, the Ismailis emphasize a distinction between the exoteric and esoteric dimension of Islam. However, unlike other Shia, the Ismaili are characterized by a unique emphasis on the esoteric that approaches antinomianism.
The Isma'ili get their name from their acceptance of Imam Isma'il ibn Jafar as the appointed spiritual successor to Ja'far al-Sadiq, wherein they differ from the Twelver Shia, who accept Musa al-Kazim, the younger brother of Isma'il, as the true Imām. In summary, the Isma'ili accept Isma'il ibn Jafar as the sixth Imam. Isma'ili thought is heavily influenced by Neoplatonism.
After the death of Muhammad ibn Isma'il in the 8th century CE, the teachings of Ismailism further transformed into the belief system as it is known today, with an explicit concentration on the deeper, esoteric meaning of the Islamic religion. With the eventual development of Usulism and Akhbarism into the more literalistic oriented, Shia Islam developed into two separate directions: the metaphorical Ismaili, Alevi, Bektashi, Alian, and Alawite groups focusing on the mystical path and nature of God, along with the "Imam of the Time" representing the manifestation of esoteric truth and intelligible divine reality, with the more literalistic Usuli and Akhbari groups focusing on divine law and the deeds and sayings of Muhammad and the Twelve Imams who were guides and a light to God.
The larger sect of Ismaili are the Nizaris, who recognize Aga Khan V as the 50th hereditary Imam, while other groups are known as the Tayyibi branch. The community with the highest percentage of Ismailis is Gorno-Badakhshan, but Isma'ilis can be found in Central Asia, Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan, Yemen, Lebanon, Malaysia, Syria, India, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Iraq, Kuwait, East Africa, Angola, Bangladesh, and South Africa, and have in recent years emigrated to Europe, Russia, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the United States, and Trinidad and Tobago.
History
Succession crisis
Ismailism shares its beginnings with other early Shia sects that emerged during the succession crisis that spread throughout the early Muslim community. From the beginning, the Shia asserted the right of Ali, cousin of Muhammad, to have both political and spiritual control over the community. This also included his two sons, who were the grandsons of Muhammad through his daughter Fatima. The conflict remained relatively peaceful between the partisans of Ali and those who asserted a semi-democratic system of electing caliphs, until the third Rashidun caliph was killed and Ali ascended to the caliphate with popular support.Soon after his ascendancy, Aisha, the third of Muhammad's wives, claimed along with Uthman's tribe, the Umayyads, that Ali should take from the people responsible for Uthman's death. Ali voted against it, as he believed that the situation at the time demanded a peaceful resolution of the matter. Though both parties could rightfully defend their claims, due to escalated misunderstandings, the Battle of the Camel was fought and Aisha was defeated, but was respectfully escorted to Medina by Ali.
Following this battle, Mu'awiya I, the Umayyad governor of Syria, also staged a revolt under the same pretences. Ali led his forces against Mu'awiya until the side of Mu'awiya held copies of the Quran against their spears and demanded that the issue be decided by Islam's holy book. Ali accepted this, and an arbitration was done which ended in his favor. A group among Ali's army believed that subjecting his legitimate authority to arbitration was tantamount to apostasy, and abandoned his forces. This group was known as the Khawarij and Ali wished to defeat their forces before they reached the cities, where they would be able to blend in with the rest of the population. While he was unable to do this, he nonetheless defeated their forces in subsequent battles.
Regardless of these defeats, the Kharijites survived and became a violently problematic group in Islamic history. After plotting assassinations against Ali, Mu'awiya, and the arbitrator of their conflict, a Kharijite successfully assassinated Ali in 661 CE. The Imāmate then passed on to his son Hasan and then later his son Husayn. According to the Nizari Isma'ili tradition, Hasan was "an Entrusted Imam" Husayn was the "Permanent Imam". The Entrusted Imam is an Imam in the full sense except that the lineage of the Imamate must continue through the Permanent Imam. However, the political Caliphate was soon taken over by Mu'awiya, the only leader in the empire at that time with an army large enough to seize control.
Even some of Ali's early followers regarded him as "an absolute and divinely guided leader", whose demands of his followers were "the same kind of loyalty that would have been expected for the Prophet". For example, one of Ali's supporters who also was devoted to Muhammad said to him: "our opinion is your opinion and we are in the palm of your right hand." The early followers of Ali seem to have taken his guidance as "right guidance" deriving from Divine support. In other words, Ali's guidance was seen to be the expression of God's will and the Quranic message. This spiritual and absolute authority of Ali was known as, and it was inherited by his successors, the Imams.
In the 1st century after Muhammad, the term was not specifically defined as " of the Prophet", but was used in connection to Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman, and some Umayyad Caliphs. The idea of, or traditions ascribed to Muhammad, was not mainstream, nor was criticised. Even the earliest legal texts by Malik b. Anas and Abu Hanifa employ many methods including analogical reasoning and opinion and do not rely exclusively on. Only in the 2nd century does the Sunni jurist al-Shafi'i first argue that only the sunnah of Muhammad should be a source of law, and that this is embodied in s. It would take another one hundred years after al-Shafi'i for Sunni Muslim jurists to fully base their methodologies on prophetic s. Meanwhile, Imami Shia Muslims followed the Imams' interpretations of Islam as normative without any need for s and other sources of Sunni law such as analogy and opinion.
Karbala and afterward
The Battle of Karbala
After the death of Imam Hasan, Imam Husayn and his family were increasingly worried about the religious and political persecution that was becoming commonplace under the reign of Mu'awiya's son, Yazid. Amidst this turmoil in 680, Husayn along with the women and children of his family, upon receiving invitational letters and gestures of support by Kufis, wished to go to Kufa and confront Yazid as an intercessor on part of the citizens of the empire. However, he was stopped by Yazid's army in Karbala during the month of Muharram. His family was starved and deprived of water and supplies, until eventually the army came in on the tenth day and martyred Husayn and his companions, and enslaved the rest of the women and family, taking them to Kufa.This battle would become extremely important to the Shia psyche. The Twelvers as well as Musta'li Isma'ili still mourn this event during an occasion known as Ashura.
The Nizari Isma'ili, however, do not mourn this in the same way because of the belief that the light of the Imam never dies but rather passes on to the succeeding Imām, making mourning arbitrary. However, during commemoration they do not have any celebrations in Jama'at Khana during Muharram and may have announcements or sessions regarding the tragic events of Karbala. Also, individuals may observe Muharram in a wide variety of ways. This respect for Muharram does not include self-flagellation and beating because they feel that harming one's body is harming a gift from God.
Image:Ambigram - Muhammad and Ali2.svg|thumb|Ambigram depicting Muhammad and Ali written in a single word. The 180 degrees inverted form shows both words.
The beginnings of Ismāʿīlī Daʿwah
After being set free by Yazid, Zaynab bint Ali, the daughter of Fatimah and Ali and the sister of Hasan and Husayn, started to spread the word of Karbala to the Muslim world, making speeches regarding the event. This was the first organized daʿwah of the Shia, which would later develop into an extremely spiritual institution for the Ismāʿīlīs.After the poisoning of Ali ibn Husayn Zayn al-Abidin by Hisham ibn Abd al-Malik in 713, the first succession crisis of the Shia arose with Zayd ibn ʻAlī's companions and the Zaydīs who claimed Zayd ibn ʻAlī as the Imām, whilst the rest of the Shia upheld Muhammad al-Baqir as the Imām. The Zaidis argued that any sayyid or "descendant of Muhammad through Hasan or Husayn" who rebelled against tyranny and the injustice of his age could be the Imām. The Zaidis created the Zaydism.
In contrast to his predecessors, Muhammad al-Baqir focused on academic Islamic scholarship in Medina, where he promulgated his teachings to many Muslims, both Shia and non-Shia, in an extremely organized form of Daʿwah. In fact, the earliest text of the Ismaili school of thought is said to be the Umm al-kitab, a conversation between Muhammad al-Baqir and three of his disciples.
This tradition would pass on to his son, Ja'far al-Sadiq, who inherited the Imāmate on his father's death in 743. Ja'far al-Sadiq excelled in the scholarship of the day and had many pupils, including three of the four founders of the Sunni madhhabs.
However, following al-Sadiq's poisoning in 765, a fundamental split occurred in the community. Ismaʻil ibn Jafar, who at one point was appointed by his father as the next Imam, appeared to have predeceased his father in 755. While Twelvers argue that either he was never heir apparent or he truly predeceased his father and hence Musa al-Kadhim was the true heir to the Imamate, the Ismāʿīlīs argue that either the death of Ismaʻil was staged in order to protect him from Abbasid persecution or that the Imamate passed to Muhammad ibn Ismaʻil in lineal descent.